Do You Skype?

Add us as a contact: shannon.nault
We'd love to say hi!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! What's the date? Valentine's Day. Oh, I've got plenty of excuses lined up ... I was out of town, Jacob was sick, I had strep, the photographer had dental surgery ... really! She did! All of this boils down to the fact that I will be late for my own funeral.

What I'm trying to say is that our Valentine cards will be on their way tomorrow. They will not be St. Patrick's Day cards or early Christmas cards for 2011. I promise.

Here's a teaser...

Young Chefs

In hopes that learning about food in a fun environment would help teach Sarah to eat more than just chicken nuggets and macaroni, I signed the older three kids up for two classes at Young Chef's Academy. They had their first class on Thursday night.

Ethan had a great time in the younger group. He made chocolate bonbons by mixing the dough and forming it around a Hershey's Kiss.



While the bonbons cooked, he made a ham roll-up. First, chopping the onions for the cream cheese...



...then spreading it on lunchmeat and lettuce leaves.



Rolling the bonbons in powdered sugar...



...and trying the roll-up. He rated it so-so.

Young Chefs continued

Sarah and Jacob's group was much bigger and it was hard to get in the kitchen for pictures. Here, they are making chicken vegetable soup.



Chopping carrots and chicken.



Before they made the soup, they made these super cheesy biscuits. The biscuits cooked while the kids worked on the soup. The soup had so many onions in it, the parents' eyes were burning in the lobby! At the end of the class, the biscuits and soup were so hot, the kids had to wait ten minutes before they could taste anything. Sarah loved the cheesy biscuit (hello carbohydrate) and Jacob didn't like it at all! However, Jacob liked the soup and Sarah didn't even try it. Figures.

Congratulations!

On Tuesday, Mark went to Dallas to accept his award for Operations Manager of the Year for the Southwest Division. We won a trip to San Diego in March, and there, we will find out if he wins Operations Manager of the Year for the entire company.

Blizzard of 2011

After 50+ hours of below freezing temps, San Antonio finally got some snow!




The bad news? Under ALL that snow, there was a layer of ice making travel really dangerous. Highways were closed all over the city, including the interstates! Schools started closing Thursday night in anticipation of the poor driving conditions.

The kids' school announced they were closed early Friday morning and by 9 am, the neighborhood kid were all outside playing in it. Before that, Mark brought some snow in for the kids to touch...



...and the first thing Lucas did was put it in his mouth!

100th Day of School

It was the 100th day of school and the kinders had a celebration. Last year, Sarah had to dress like she was 100 years old. This year, the Ethan had to make a shirt with 100 things on it. Ethan wanted 100 peace signs. Now, I could have let him draw on a shirt with markers or puffy paint, but 100 peace signs for someone who still struggles to write his name once with all the letters facing the right way ... well, let's just say I helped him out with this project.



I found a graphic with peace signs online and duplicated it enough times to have 48 peace signs on the front and 52 on the back and applied the graphic with iron-on paper. I think it turned out awesome and hopefully, Lucas can wear it when he is in kindergarten!

All the kinders paraded around the hallways to show off their shirts. I didn't take any other pictures, but there was one kid with 100 bandaids stuck to his shirt, one kid with 100 plastic bugs glued on, one girl with 100 flower petals sewn on...and many kids with just the number 100 written on their shirts in marker. A fun day!

Multicultural Night

Tuesday night was the Multicultural Night and PTA meeting. Last year, I made French onion soup and gave out samples. This year, I didn't want to cook so I tried a craft idea. Making Eiffel towers out of pipe cleaners! I wasn't sure it would be a success, so I made one and took this picture.



Then I sent the picture to two friends and asked if it was cute or stupid. They both voted cute, so I went with it. However, I underestimated the skill level of some of the younger participants and ended up making at least a dozen for various kids. I also had a display board with facts and pictures about the Eiffel Tower. But then ... THIS kid came along and blew me away!



His tower was better than mine!